


Pink and Grey

by soyforramen



Category: Archie Comics, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2019-10-17 06:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17554973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soyforramen/pseuds/soyforramen
Summary: Short Bughead one-shots.  Chapter 2: A Bad Haircut and A Beanie





	1. Chapter 1

“If we get caught I’m blaming you.”

Betty giggled and shifted closer to him in the small bathroom. “No one will believe you, Juggie. Remember the frog escape last semester?”

The memory of all those frogs jumping down the hallways and away from their certain fate as Dr. Beaker’s freshman project brought a ghost of a smile to his lips. It had been worth the three weeks of detention just to watch the chaos that unfolded. 

Jughead’s small smile fell as he realized he’d been the only one in detention. Somehow, Betty had managed to slip away unseen and he’d become the patsy, the fall guy for an ethical protest he didn’t really care all that much about. This time around, though, it hadn’t been hard at all to convince him the something really did need to be done about Reggie and Moose. Especially since they’d stolen his hat and played keep away with it for almost a week before one of the teachers finally stepped in.

If this worked, he’d be her patsy again. He was the obvious suspect. Assigned to the same room, had access to a door key. And no matter how much he might plead, no matter how he might argue, he’d still be the only one to fall under the microscope of the horror that was chaperone suspicion. 

This blonde was far more cunning than even he gave her credit for. If it had been anyone else, Jughead would have already stormed out the door. He was already in enough trouble for falling asleep in Burberry’s freshman ‘Esteem And You’ course. 

But, as Betty had pointed out earlier, even if this did go sideways it wasn’t as if they’d be able to ship him back home. Mrs. Andrews had already paid for Jughead’s spot on the field trip. The worst that would happen is he’d be shuffled into one of the parents rooms to sleep on their couch, and even without getting in trouble that was preferable to the hell on earth that was sharing a hotel room with Reggie and Moose Mason.

“Cooper, you are an enigma.”

Betty laughed, her smile brighter than it had been in ages (he missed her smile), and reached into her coat pocket to pull out a blue bottle. Her elbow grazed his chest in the confined space. All he wanted to do was grasp her forearm and say something witty, charming, sly. 

But this was Betty, and he was Jughead. In every universe imaginable she ended up with some stand up guy who wore brand new designer clothes, had three degrees from Harvard, and defended those who couldn’t defend themselves. Probably someone named Chad, or Adam, or Archie. While he? Well, so long as he had a hot cup of coffee, a burger, and a pen and paper he’d be able to make it through another day.

That knowledge planted his feet to the laminate tile beneath him while he watched Betty pour Reggie’s overpriced mousse down the drain. Carefully, she screwed the lid off her own bottle. A foul stench crowded the room around them and Jughead reached across her to flip on the air vents. 

“Are you sure this will work?” Jughead asked through coughs.

Betty nodded, her cheeks red from the stench. She tipped the bottle over the mousse and poured a thick, pink liquid into it. 

As she was screwing the lid shut, the hotel door opened with a bang that rattled the bathroom mirror. Betty and Jughead glanced at each other, eyes wide. The sounds of the football team were loud as a train with the door open. Jughead cursed himself for not resisting Betty insistence that he be in the bathroom with her. 

“Hide,” he hissed.

“Where?”

He herded her into the shower. Just as he’d pulled the curtain behind them the bathroom door opened and brought with it two of Jughead’s least favorite people.

“What’s that stench?” Moose asked loudly. 

“Probably Jones and his cheap shampoo,” Reggie said with glee. “Must be why he wears that stupid hat all the time. His hair probably smells to much without it.”

Jughead slid down to sit in the tub. He stared at the space between his feet because it was easier than seeing the pity on Betty’s face. No matter where he went, it seemed, he couldn’t escape the reality of his financial situation. He’d known for a long time his family had gone without things his classmates had, but it wasn’t until high school that his realized it. And once they had, Reggie and his ilk had pounced on it.

Betty sat down across from him. She reached for his hand and squeezed it.

“What’s in the blue bottle? Looks too expensive to be Jones’,” Moose asked in the same way he’d asked the literature teacher what a cliche was.

“Whatever it is, don’t touch it or you’ll end up a poor weirdo too,” Reggie said with a braying laugh. 

The shower curtain shifted as one of the Dumb and Dumber crew shoved at the other. God, they were wrestling while he and Betty were stuck in a shower having to listen to their  
scintillating conversation. 

Jughead couldn’t imagine a way he could be more embarrassed. But if there had been, Reggie and Moose would be the first to find it if they looked in the shower. They had been the bane of Jughead’s existence the moment he’d stepped into Riverdale high. While the pair had taken Archie under their wing in an attempt at bro-ification, Jughead had been their designated object de ridicule from day one.

The situation could be worse, it would always be worse. His parents had taught him that. But the overall experience still wasn’t pleasant

He dared to glance up at Betty, and found her simmering with the same rage she’d had when she found out just what, exactly, had been put in the cafeteria’s vegetarian options. When she caught him looking at her she smiled at him, the same closed lip mask she’d worn since the day she’d been outfitted for braces in sixth grade. Jughead knew that Betty didn’t care about his socio-economic status, but it still stung for anyone else to hear the same jeers he was subjected to in the hallways of Riverdale.

He dropped his eyes to the tub between them and Betty nudged his foot with her own as if trying to get his attention. When he looked up again, Betty mouthed something that looked a lot like ‘Moose next?’

Jughead nodded. Even if she’d called him a goose-head, or wanted to go get juice after this he’d still agree. He’d agree to almost anything so long as she’d still be his friend after everyone found out just how great she was.

Eventually Moose and Reggie took their repressed flirtation out of the room, all the while rating girls on their hotness level. Betty rolled her eyes, her cheeks growing redder and redder as the pair went through the rest of their grade. Jughead mimed gagging himself and Betty bit her lip to keep from laughing.

The hotel door slammed shut and Jughead reached for the shower curtain. Betty caught his arm and shook her head. 

"They might have forgotten something," she whispered. 

Jughead dropped his arm, and a flare of happiness went through him when Betty didn't move her hand. 

True to her words, Moose scrambled back into the room a few moments later and hustled into the bathroom. He left as quickly as he’d come and finally Jughead was allowed to move the shower curtain back.

The pair clambered out of the tub, the jovial atmosphere from before Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum’s interruption long gone. Their words echoed through Jughead’s mind and he hated how it got to him. They’d all known on some level that the Jones’ family wasn’t as well off as the Andrews or the Coopers, but it wasn’t until middle school that it became tangible.

Archie’s family could afford the cost of sports equipment and trainers, while the Coopers could afford band and woodshop and Polly’s cheerleading expenses. 

When Jughead asked his mother if he could sign up for the yearly school trip in seventh grade, a cost of $30 for the day, she’d only sighed and taken the form from him. She stuck it the refrigerator and promised to find the money somehow.

Two years later, the form was still on stuck to the fridge’s door buried beneath layers of overdue bills and collection notices. His mother had left both the bills and her son six months ago, leaving nothing but empty promises in her wake. Jughead still hadn’t the heart to take the yellowing form down. Some childlike, hopeful part of him wondered if she’d remember it one day and try and make it up to him. It was a lie he told himself whenever he caught sight of it.

“They’re idiots. Both of them,” Betty huffed as she pulled Reggie’s overfilled bathroom bag towards her. “I can’t believe Polly had a crush on either one of them.”

Jughead watched as she unscrewed another bottle labeled with unfamiliar script and poured half of it down the drain. She uncapped the blue bottle and poured its contents in. With the skill of a pharmacist, she screwed the top back on and handed it to Jughead.

“Shake this really, really well.”

Betty then reached towards Moose’s zip lock bag, helpfully labeled with a cartoon moose drawn on it. She pulled out a bottle of conditioner and opened it only to dump half of it into the sink.

“I thought you just wanted to get back at Reggie.” While he wasn’t opposed to the idea, Jughead was amazed that Betty would be so willing to pull Moose in on the prank as well.

“If they’re close enough to bad mouth you, they’re close enough to suffer the same fate,” Betty said as she poured out the rest of the blue bottle. “Besides they both stole your hat together. If we leave Moose out of this we’re no better than they are.”

She screwed the lid back onto both bottles and slipped the blue one into an inside pocket of her jacket. The other she picked up and shook vigorously, a mirror image of Jughead.

“How do you think they’re going to react after this? Desolate, despair, rage?” she asked. She leaned against the bathroom sink in thought. “I’d like to think they’d fall into each other arms, sobbing, and promise to change their ways.”

Jughead snorted. “The only thing that would change their ways would be a restraining order and a stint in juvie.”

Betty tsked and place her bottle back into Moose’s bag. “Where is your faith in humanity, Jughead? Didn’t Charles Dickens teach you man can always change for the better?” 

He set the other bottle back into Reggie’s bag. He zipped it up and set it back in the corner where it still covered almost a third of the counter space.

“Yeah, once they’re old and have ruined a thousand people’s lives. Nothing like a Christmas dinner to shed off years of emotional abuse of your employees.”

Betty sighed and leaned her head against Jughead’s shoulder as she looked over her handiwork. “Well, maybe it won’t take that much. Maybe once they’re both bald they’ll realize how important a hat is in winter.” 

“Maybe,” Jughead said softly. 

They both knew it wouldn’t. Nothing could knock either Reggie or Moose off the top of the social pile, but at least this would bring the rest of the school some joy. Not to mention ruin their yearbook pictures.

With their task taken care of, Betty tugged at Jughead’s sleeve. Together they made their way to the restaurant downstairs where Archie was waiting for them completely unaware of what had transpired. 

To the disappointment of both schemers, the rest of the weekend went without incident. On Monday, though, neither could contain their amusement as Reggie and Moose walked through the halls with their own beanies pulled down low over their ears.

As they passed, Betty turned to Jughead and loudly said, “Looks like beanies are in this year.”


	2. A Bad Haircut and A Beanie

The first day of school brought with it many things. A brutal new schedule after the lazy months of summer’s freedom. New, at least to Jughead, clothes and shoes now that he’d grown out of the old ones. Empty notebooks and cheap pencils from the dollar store. A library full of books and a cafeteria full of food The return to the ins and outs of Riverdale Elementary was rote now that he’d gone through this four times before.

Every year, like clockwork, there was something that went awry. Jellybean’s early birth the night before first grade kept Jughead and his father anxiously waiting through the difficult birth. The day before second grade found Archie breaking his arm from falling out of the treehouse while Jughead broke his ankle trying to catch him. And last year found Reggie Mantle, his goons, and Betty Cooper, already overly zealous in her environmental awareness, sneaking into the school to release all class animals back into the wild.

(Still one of the highlights of life in this boring town, an even that many had tried, and failed, to top since.)

This year promised something different. Something lighter and better. Now that Reggie, Moose, and Jason had moved onto middle school Jughead finally began to believe he could enjoy lunch and recess. He tied his flannel around his waist, a decisive fashion choice for the more conservative halls of Riverdale, and stepped out into the cloudy morning light.

The crisp hint of fall tore through the oppressive heat of summer. He’d always loved the fall and the changing of the leaves, but mostly because of the fairs that brought fried foods and sugary treats along with it.

It was looking to be a good year.

That is, until he came upon the Andrews’ residence. 

As he drew nearer, a soft keening sound called his attention towards the hedge row to his left. He was struck by the oddity that neither family would leave a small animal in such distress. Jughead glanced up at the Andrews’ porch, no Archie to be found. As he neared, he saw the light in Archie’s room was still dark. Next door, the Cooper’s residence was locked up tight against the outside world.

He glanced at his watch and found he was 15 minutes early, another oddity to the day considering his father had returned early enough from his nightly escapades to wake Jughead this morning. A quick glance proved he was the only living creature on Elm Street, leaving him with a moral dilemma he’d rather avoid. His better nature, and his curiosity got the better of him and he wandered towards the hedges to investigate. Still too short to peak over the bushes he squatted down and peered through the trunks.

Whatever it was he’d been expecting, it wasn’t a bright pink pair of overalls underneath a mass of blonde, shaking hair.

“Betty?”

The wailing paused, and she turned to look at him. Her face was covered in bright red splotches and tear tracks, a sight that still broke his heart of ice no matter how many times he’d seen it. 

Swaying movement at the edge of his vision caught his eye and he squatted closer to the ground for a better look. A fringe of hair stood at attention on the top of her head, defying gravity. The overall look was as if a flamingo and a cockatoo had gotten into a fight and come out the other end as conjoined twins. 

Jughead bit his cheek to keep from laughing. Betty’s lower lip trembled and new tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

He cleared his throat of humor before he spoke again. “What happened?”

The responding sniffle was enough of a warning Jughead was able to brace himself against the onslaught of verbiage he didn’t realize anyone was capable of this early in the morning.

“Cheryl and Jason came by to pick up Polly to go to school, even though Polly knows we’re not supposed to let anyone in the house if they’re not home, and Cheryl put her gum in my hair and Polly didn’t want to be late for her first day and Mom and Dad already were at work so I tried putting some of Polly’s hair stuff in my hair to get the gum out, but that didn’t work, so then I tried cutting it out and now I look like a weird space alien and Mom’s going to kill me and look at my hair it’s ruined forever and everybody’s gonna hate me -”

Betty came to a crashing stop, finally running out of air. Jughead started to speak, to try and tell her it wasn’t that bad, a little uneven and unique, but it still wouldn’t make her any different of a person, but she was already too far gone for any attempt at optimism.

“I don’t want to go to school,” she wailed. Her proclamation made to the world, she tucked her head into the crook of her elbow and resumed her crying.

Distressed at so many tears - he’d never been able to stand anyone crying, doubly so now that his baby sister was able to articulate, in excruciating detail, why she was crying - Jughead tried to think of something to cheer Betty up.

“I thought you liked school.”

This only made Betty turn away from him.

Well. Shit. Where was Archie when you needed him? Ah, right. Rushing around after sleeping through his third alarm.

“Do you want to -” Jughead trailed off, unable to find any words at all. Not even a ‘the.’

There was that one time in kindergarten, now that he thought about it, when he’d gotten gum in his hair. It wasn’t a malicious thing, not like Cheryl’s act of terror. Rather, Ethel had been chasing him on the playground, trying to get him to play house or something equally gross, and he’d tripped over his untied shoelaces. And Ethel had fallen on top of him, her big wad of Fruit Stripe gum landing in the space between his beanie and his hair. 

His mother had thankfully been able to save the last thing he had from his favorite uncle. Jughead, on the other hand, had to be shaved almost bald after his father attempted to fix the problem himself.

But hadn’t there been something about peanut butter first? And hadn’t his mother made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich just this morning?

Jughead reached into his backpack and pulled out the square container. Betty watched him, her tears now silent. He pulled off the lid and peeled the bread apart. Gingerly setting down the jelly half, he moved the peanut butter laden slice towards Betty. 

“What about -”

She caught his wrist before he could get close to her hair. Through a sniffle, she reminded him, “The gum’s gone, Juggie.”

So what was the problem? His face must have telegraphed his confusion because Betty let out a choked laugh.

“I ruined my hair trying to fix it. If I got to school like this,” she gestured to her wrong sided mohawk, “everybody will make fun of me and I won’t have any friends.”

Still not sure what the problem was, Jughead put his sandwich back together and took a bite. “Me and Archie will still be your friends,” he said.

Betty snorted and tore a piece of his sandwich off. She popped it into her mouth and scrubbed at her cheeks.

“You two don’t count.” At his offended look, she added, “you two will always be my friends. I meant -”

“Everybody who counts.”

She sighed and nodded. 

As painful as her words might sound, Jughead wasn’t offended by them. He knew what she meant, especially in a small town like this. The Jones’ had a reputation that had most people on the north side of the tracks clutching their pearls as they delighted in gossip about them, while the Andrews’ were a sturdy family without interest in rising through the ranks of small-town society. A society that bled down even to their children.

“You could wear a hat,” he suggested after a moment. “What about that Kermit one you got last year?”

She shook her head. “The house is locked. And even if I wanted to, Ms. Crabapple doesn’t let us wear hats.”

Jughead took another bite and chewed, his jaw turning the gears in his head. An idea brewed, one he hated with every ounce of his being. It meant giving up a part of himself, becoming a part of everyone he hated in school. 

Across the hedge, Betty’s tears dripped onto her overalls. The hot pink dots stared at him expectantly. With a heavy sigh he pulled off his beanie and held it out to her. She reached for it, paused, and stared at him.

“Take it. I think you need it more than me today.”

Betty’s lower lip trembled, and Jughead steeled himself for another round of tears. A door slammed shut behind him and he heard Archie’s voice.

“But -”

“Take it, Cooper, of Archie’s gonna get an eyeful of your Guile cosplay and I’m pretty sure he’s more of a Chun-Li type of guy.”

Betty took the beanie and gingerly slipped it over her head. It covered her ill-inspired fringe and, unless she removed it, she looked like she did in the cold of winter. 

“If anybody asks, I lost a bet,” Jughead said. He took the last bite of his sandwich, his stomach already protesting at the loss of lunch, and stood. 

Archie approached them, none the wiser to Betty’s follicle foibles, and said his hello’s to both her and Jughead. They walked to school together that day, like they always had, and if anybody noticed Betty wearing a beanie, they didn’t comment, though Mr. Finch did make a snide comment about Jughead finally growing up. 

(Best of all, Mrs. Cooper had sent Betty with an eggplant lasagna filled with three types of cheese, a lunch that Betty happily shared.)

That afternoon, they waited until Archie went inside to make the exchange. 

“Thanks,” Betty said softly. She ran a hand through what was left of her hair and winced. “Mom’s going to kill me.”

Jughead shrugged and slipped the beanie back to its rightful place. The tension that had lined his body slipped away as it settled over his hair. “I think she’d be more angry with Polly for not helping you.”

“Maybe. Polly wouldn’t ever forgive me though.” She scuffed at the ground between them. “I really appreciate it. You didn’t have to do that for me.”

“Like you said, we’re friends. I don’t want to have to make an effort to find new ones.”

“Right,” Betty laughed. “You’re not really good at that, huh?”

“The worst. I’ll see you tomorrow, Betts.”

“Night, Juggie.”


End file.
